Star Law: A Marshal Cole Series

Chapter 12 (b)

Gunter Volks didn't need a lot of sleep. After processing the cabin of Aubrey Chase Chen and clearing the corridors surrounding it, he headed to sleep under orders. The work of moving the body and gathering evidence had taken till very late morning. He awoke late afternoon knowing that Marshal Cole would have handed off all new material on the case. Scrolling through his datapadd, he saw that CICI had not drawn any definitive conclusions about who was responsible for what the doctor was now calling a homicide.

A quick shower was all he needed and food could be consumed on the go. As he stepped out of his cabin, he found the captain's droid Boz waiting outside.

"You've been waiting for a while?" Volks asked.

"Not at all," replied the droid. "You said you would be ready at the top of the hour and I just arrived."

Volks harrumphed as Boz led the way down the corridor. He knew he was very predictable. "I've read the CICI report. What do you have to add?"

"There is a considerable amount of evidence to sort through and even more security footage," Boz replied. "Doctor Kripisov made a finding of homicide on the autopsy but the forensics doesn't point to a viable suspect."

Volks made a face. "We do have some leads though. The Marshal is putting together a list?"

"Yes," Boz answered as they approached the lifts. "Some more forensics is coming in and will be ready for the next group meeting. The Marshal spent considerable time on the security videos, ship manifests and other information related to Ms. Chen including the container in the ship's hold."

"I never know where I'm going in the hold," complained Volks. They stepped into a lift reserved for crew.

"Nor do I," said Boz. "The configuration changes every voyage and while the loadmaster records it all down, it still doesn't do it justice."

"If a droid can get lost down there, what hope is the rest of us," said Volk dryly. Boz said nothing. "We are meeting Chief Petty Officer Brunner?"

"Yes, Chief Petty Officer Ward Brunner and some people from his team await us. Your man Jay Champion is escorting Kar Oharat down from medical for forensics."

"If needed," added Volks. Champion was one of his deputies and also a former cop. He did not know the humanoid nurse well nor his Tekatic race but was aware he was good at his job.

The lift descended several decks and then chimed when it reached its destination. The doors opened almost immediately across from the hatch to the cargo bay. Chief Brunner and two Crewers were waiting to one side. Volks read their names as Gerders and Takata. On the other side were Champion and Kar Oharat.

"'Bout time," growled Brunner. "Hate these inspections."

"It's a murder investigation, Chief Petty Officer," corrected Volks. "And one where we have very little to go on so far."

"Yer right, Chief," Brunner said, eyes downcast. "A lady has died and we should find out who did it. It is always tough for a loadmaster to take down the load in flight."

Brunner, Chief Petty Officer and Loadmaster of the Niagara was right at home in the cargo hold. However, during flight, it was pretty much empty of activity and he had other duties.

Brunner used his passcode and the big doors rumbled to one side. The lights in the hold started to click on. He led the team in and they fell in behind. Despite a datapadd, he sometimes had to stop and re-consider what direction to take. Most personal AIs had galactic positioning systems in their programming. The GPS would link into a system such as that on a ship and give gentle prods that felt like instinct rather than a command. For example, if the intent of a person was to go the Central Plaza, it would feel like instinctive knowledge guided you there. Crew areas were usually off limits to civilians but Boz had given the marshal access to that information. Even so, the GPS was sketchy when it came to the cargo hold. There were too many oversized or awkward things in the hold that blocked access and had to be navigated around. It got confusing.